Traditional lighting devices have tended to be relatively dumb, in that they can be turned ON and OFF, and in some cases may be dimmed, usually in response to user activation of a relatively simple input device. Lighting devices have also been controlled in response to ambient light detectors that turn on a light only when ambient light is at or below a threshold (e.g. as the sun goes down) and in response to occupancy sensors (e.g. to turn on light when a room is occupied and to turn the light off when the room is no longer occupied for some period). Often traditional lighting devices are controlled individually or as relatively small groups at separate locations.
With the advent of modern electronics has come advancements, including advances in the types of light sources as well as advancements in networking and control capabilities of the lighting devices. For example, solid state sources are now becoming a commercially viable alternative to traditional light sources such as incandescent and fluorescent lamps. By nature, solid state light sources such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) are easily controlled by electronic logic circuits or processors. Electronic controls have also been developed for other types of light sources. As increased processing capacity finds its way into the lighting devices, it becomes relatively easy to incorporate associated communications capabilities, e.g. to allow lighting devices to communicate with system control elements and/or with each other. In this way, advanced electronics in the lighting devices as well as the associated control elements have facilitated more sophisticated lighting control algorithms as well as increased networking of lighting devices.
For example, in recent years, a number of techniques have been proposed and several systems have been developed and deployed for using visual light communication (VLC) from lighting devices to provide information to mobile devices, to allow the mobile devices to determine estimates of their respective positions in a venue illuminated by the lighting devices. There are advantages of VLC or other light based positioning over other mobile device position determination technologies, particularly for indoor position determinations. For example, optical techniques often are more accurate and/or reliable than other approaches; since light waves are highly directional and do not pass through most materials, therefore a light-detecting device can be presumed proximate to a light source if the source is robustly detectable. Also, as another example of an advantage, optical position estimation may be implemented at indoor facilities for many desirable indoor location based service applications, where signals from global position system (GPS) satellites may be attenuated or blocked to a degree that does not permit sufficiently fast or accurate determinations.
However, traditional approaches to maintaining and updating firmware of these more sophisticated and network enabled lighting devices tend to be manually intensive. In one approach, for example, a technician or other individual is required to move throughout an installation and, while in proximity of a lighting device, establish a short-range radio frequency (RF) connection with the lighting device via a handheld device (e.g., smartphone or other mobile device) in order to deliver updated firmware to the lighting device. In an installation with hundreds or thousands of lighting devices, such approach could take hours or even days and limit the ability to deploy timely updates. Therefore, a need exists for further improvement.